Time Brings Roses, Sometimes
by LuminaCarina
Summary: <html><head></head>Written for the Ye Old Icelandic Sayings Challenge. Sirius thought he could change. He couldn't. He thought things could be changed. They couldn't. Because sometimes love isn't wanted, or needed, or nearly enough. EDITED</html>


**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter**

**Written for the Ye Old Icelandic Sayings Challenge!**

**_– _****_For fending off the bite of frost:_**

**_a thick fur, a bright fire, a fast friend –_**

**But what if they're all gone?**

It was... It was nice. He had missed this. The lights, the smells, the music. He never should've tried giving it up.

Sirius downed another glass of fire-whiskey, and with raucous laughter reached for the generous bosom of a tipsy blonde. She was a pretty girl, whom he had fondly named peaches, as her skin really was the colour and texture of peaches. She smelled very nice, too.

Another girl, aptly nicknamed Bubble-butt, squealed and pounced on Peaches, knocking his hand off its course and into her own cleavage, but Sirius didn't mind at all. The more the merrier, after all. The way the two girls moved and _rubbed _against each other was very merry, if he did say so himself. He thanked the gods for leading him there, but he also knew that he wasn't there only because of the gods. He had always had an eye for finding such things. Pretty girls were his forte, one might say.

Of course, these were pretty _muggle _girls, but Sirius didn't let that bother him. It was even better, as he didn't have a long-standing reputation in the muggle world, so he could be as perverse as he wanted to be and not worry about running into the girls' fathers or brothers later on.

''What did you say your name was?''

Oh look. Peaches was inches away from his face, and her breath held a distinctive note of alcohol to it. He pulled her even closer and let his hands run along her sweaty body. She giggled at that, and playfully batted at his hands.

''I'm not that kind of girl, mister.'' She said, but all the while she kept herself plastered to him, and Sirius grinned at her.

''I'm sure you're not, Peaches. And the name's Sirius. I'm guessing yours is Aphrodite.''

She shrieked with laughter at that, not even bothering to feign indifference, and once more Sirius congratulated himself for having such wonderful taste in women. Women were good. You could lose yourself in their soft skin and round faces, and they had an instinctive knowledge about all your hurts and sorrows. They were just perfect like that.

Bubble-butt covered his eyes with her dainty little hands, and Peaches immediately joined the game. He let them play, knowing that later on they would be playing a very different game.

* * *

><p>Waking up in the morning had always been a chore to him. It made him feel slow and sluggish, and every day, no matter the circumstances, he felt as if he had forgotten something very big and very important, and it would take him over an hour to get rid of the undeserved guilt.<p>

This morning, there were two girls in his bed, one curled up a foetal position and the other sprawled all over, with her arm slung over his chest and her legs tangled up with his own. They looked different than they did the night before, a bit thinner and a bit more tired, and he noted with an aching chest that there was a quiet sort of desperation permanently etched on Bubble-butt's face.

She was such a pretty girl, with dark hair and a large forehead, and she had smooth pale skin tautly stretched over her back. She shouldn't be sad, not ever.

Everybody thought him a lecher, a witless fool who only cared for his next bed-warmer, but that wasn't it. Well, not all, at least. There was much more to him than that. But about his bed-warmers, he loved them, truly and honestly and with his whole heart. They were girls, women, beautiful and soft and made out of comfort and everything good in the world. The only difference between him and James was that while James loved just one woman, Sirius loved them all. Tall and short, skinny and plump, loud and quiet, he didn't have a type. It would be discrimination if he did.

''Mhmmm…''

Peaches was waking up. Sirius watched her as she uncurled from her position on his left and cracked her fingers, and she sleepily blinked at him without bothering to cover herself up.

''You're… Simon, right?'' There were some adorable wrinkles around her eyes as she tried to remember his name, and he thought it was remarkable she could recall the first letter of it. He hadn't ever cared to learn her name at all.

He smiled at her widely, ''It's Sirius actually.''

''Right,'' she bobbed her head, ''Sirius. I knew that.''

''Of course you did, love. Do be quiet though, our mutual friend over there is still asleep. We wouldn't want to wake her up, now would we?''

Peaches twisted a bit to look at Bubble-butt, and she made a small noise of surprise when she saw the other girl.

''Tracey?'' she whispered.

''So you two know each other then?'' he asked as he pulled her away from the bed and out of the bedroom, ''Do you want some breakfast now, or should we wait for… Tracey, you said?''

She followed him peacefully, only stopping to pick up her flimsy dress. ''She's my sister's best friend's little cousin. We met on her brother's wedding. Well, she met me at her brother's wedding and I met her brother at his wedding. Though, now that I think 'bout it, there wasn't much of a wedding that day. I think finding the groom and his best man drunk and naked with one of the guests kind of ruined it.''

Sirius grinned at her, ''Did you only meet the groom or did you meet the best man as well?''

''Mmmm, the best man _wasn't_ the best, if you know what I mean.''

She sat herself in Moony's favourite armchair, all long legs and longer shadows, and he thought she looked quite fetching like that even if she did seem a bit annoyed and had some exhaustion darkening her eyes. Who wouldn't, he thought, after a night of depraved debauchery and twisted fantasies with him as a partner.

He opened his cupboards and took a quick look inside, and the only thing he found was a carton of eggs and some yogurt.

''Do you want eggs sunny side up or in an omelette? 'Cause I can only make an omelette.''

She shot him a full blown grin at that, leaning forward in the old chair, ''You're funny, you know that? But I was actually thinking something more like… Oh, I don't know, lemon tea?''

''Does that even exist?''

''Oh yeah,'' she nodded empathically, ''I make it every morning. It's made from lemon flowers and it has a really nice smell. It looks like piss though.''

There was a relative silence after that as she hummed and he clanked around with pots and pans, trying to figure out what the hell he was doing and whether eggs should be seasoned with pepper or paprika. In the end he threw in a bit of both, and he also added some cheese when he stumbled upon it in one of the drawers.

''What…'' came from the doors, and Sirius ushered Bubble-butt in before the brunette could do anything more than yawn. He pushed her to sit next to Peaches, and then he himself eased into the seat opposite of them as he gave them their plates.

''This is weird,'' Bubble-butt said suddenly, in the middle of the meal, ''I mean, aren't you supposed to want us gone before your girl comes home?''

Sirius' fork paused halfway to his mouth and his eyebrows knitted together, ''I don't know where you got it from, but I don't have a girl. Well, not a single one, that is.''

''Oh of course you do,'' she scoffed, ''You have that look about you. The stupid, sappy, woe-is-me look only the taken blokes have. I'm guessing you got in a row and she left to steam off. You know,'' she pointed her finger accusingly at him, ''you should get back together. Not a lot of women are going to take your specific brand of shit. Lord knows I wouldn't.''

Peaches stared at them fascinatedly, distractedly chewing on her eggs and following their conversation like a tennis match. Sirius didn't know whether to find it annoying or adorable.

''I'm serious,'' he said, ''I'm not in a relationship. I'm as free as a bird.''

''But you don't want to be.''

Her dark eyes bore into him with all the sharpness of an eagle, and Sirius had an uncomfortable epiphany that maybe he should have just agreed with her and sent them on their way. Because now he was stuck discussing his love life and pouring out his soul to two one-night-stands.

''Oh,'' Peaches gasped, ''Is it a secret romance? Does she even know about it? You should try giving her a dress or a pair of nice heels, every woman loves that…'' she trailed off with a dreamy sigh.

''Just admit it,'' Bubble-butt butted in, ''it will save you a headache if you do.''

''Fine,'' he growled at the infuriating women, ''My brother just got married and our best friend has started dating, and so I get to be treated like the eternal bachelor. Happy now?''

''So you're pining over someone to pine over?'' she summed up, ''That's the stupidest thing I ever heard. You should just let it be and be yourself. If you don't, you'll just end up bitter and alone.''

She seemed much older just then, and Sirius decided he didn't really want to know if she was speaking from personal experience. But still…

''And if I end up bitter and alone anyway?'' he challenged her.

''Then you end up bitter and alone,'' Bubble-butt shrugged, ''At least you'd have tried. And if you can't get someone to date you after the sex we had last night, then you would've ended up alone no matter what. Character flaws that big don't get overlooked. Ever.''

Maybe she was right. Sirius considered her for a moment, gauging her stiff back and tense jawline, and thought, ''What the heck'', and asked her out.

''Want to have dinner tonight?''

He was only too aware of Peaches squealing and clapping her hands on his left, as he was too busy watching Bubble-butt, no, _Tracey's_, gobsmacked expression.

''Are you serious?'' she looked close to slapping him, ''You'll ask me out, now? Me?''

''Why not?'' he cocked his head, ''And I'm always Sirius.''

They stared at each other's eyes, trying to win the silent contest, and it was Tracey who looked away first. ''Alright,'' she conceded, ''But this won't be an exclusive thing. It'll be a fling, and I get to end it whenever I want. No buts.''

He smiled at her and went back to eating his omelette, while Tracey and Peaches bantered back and forth, already trying to imagine Jamesy's face when he informed him that he had a girlfriend. His brother was too stressed out right now, what with the war and Lily's pregnancy, and Sirius knew Tracey's very existence would be a distraction. And Moony's face… Sirius snickered when he thought about _that_ particular reaction.

* * *

><p>Fifteen years later he could barely remember his birthday, let alone the dark-haired woman who sometimes let him in her bed instead of forcing him to look elsewhere. All he knew was that at times, mostly at night during the winter, he had a strange feeling that the world was a much smaller place than before. He would chalk it up to the Potters' death, and think no further to it.<p>

* * *

><p>Fifteen years later, there was a perpetually silent graveyard full of graves belonging to people with no family to their name. The only one to visit will be an overly aged blonde, bringing cheap flowers to a grey cross, and knowing that the name written on the stone should have been Black.<p>

* * *

><p>The Dementors aren't the only ones who feed on memories….<p>

**So, in case you didn't understand, Tracey dies. The blonde visiting the graveyard is Peaches, and the ''Black'' part is her quip at the fact that Tracey and Sirius should have been married. **

**Sirius is spoken of in the paragraph above, where Azkaban desrtoys his memories and he forgets all about Tracey. **

**The last line means that time also corrodes memories and that nothing lasts forever.**

**Reviews would be welcomed and are hoarded like dragons hoard gold. Please, make my day and leave one.**

**Edited.**

**Unbetaed.**


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